SHEIKHUPURA, Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday inaugurated the Country’s first smart forest by planting a sapling at Sheikhupura’s Rakh Jhok Forest.
The Rakh Jhok Forest, an important project of the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) covering 24,000 kanals of land, will be laced with sensors and a surveillance system.
In the forest, 10 million plants will be planted in 3,071 acres aiming at ‘Biodiversity Conservation’ and ‘Ecotourism Promotion’.
وزیر اعظم عمران خان آج رکھ جھوک جنگل (Rakh Jhok Forest)، شیخوپورہ پہنچے اور پودا لگا کر پاکستان کے پہلے سمارٹ جنگل کا افتتاح کیا۔
رکھ جھوک جنگل (RakhJhokForest# )، راوی اربن ڈویلپمنٹ اتھارٹی (RUDA) کا ایک اہم منصوبہ ہے جو 24000 کنال اراضی پر محیط ہے۔ pic.twitter.com/a4ttoVFWkF
— Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) August 25, 2021
While addressing the inaugural ceremony, Prime Minister Imran Khan stressed the need for planting trees to ensure a safe future for coming generations. He said that modern cities should be established to address environmental issues.
The prime minister regretted that Lahore used to be one of the cleanest cities of the Country but has now become a polluted city.
Imran Khan said that mere 640 million trees were planted across the Country since independence till 2013 while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government planted one billion trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone during its last tenure.
Imran Khan said that now the government aims to plant 10 billion trees across the country. He said that 10 million trees will be planted in Rakh Jhok Forest in Sheikhupura.
The prime minister said that three barrages will be constructed on River Ravi under the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project to address the issue of water shortage in Lahore. He said that Pakistan is making every effort to mitigate the impact of Climate Change.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan attended the MoU signing ceremony between RUDA and Huawei for Sheikhupura’s Rakh Jhok Forest.
